Tours, Exhibits Planned During Audubon Society's Celebration

MAITLAND — The Florida Audubon Society has planned a weekend of activities at its headquarters to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of wildlife artist and woodsman John James Audubon.

Sometimes called America's first conservationist and recognized as an outstanding illustrator, Audubon was born April 26, 1785, and died in 1851.

Tours of the Madalyn Baldwin Center for Birds of Prey, demonstrations of feeding and flight-training injured birds, and an exhibit of Audubon prints will be featured.

Resee Collins, curator of the birds of prey center, will release a red- tailed hawk named J.J. at noon Friday. The young bird was found last winter in Seminole County, starving and unable to stand, and has been rehabilitated at the center. He will be released on the shore of Lake Sybelia, where the Audubon center is located, between East Street and Lake Sybelia Drive.

The gallery, gift shop and birds of prey zoo will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. All the events are free.

Friday at 11 a.m. there will be a tour of the birds of prey center, followed by the release of the hawk. At 1 p.m. Audubon officials will cut a birthday cake for Audubon in the gift shop.

Saturday at 10 a.m. bird lovers and watchers are invited to a crash course on bird identification, including live birds, mounted specimens and study skins. Tours of the center will be at 11 a.m., noon, 1 and 3 p.m.

The tours will be hourly Sunday from noon to 4 p.m., and the gift shop and gallery will be open.

Prints of 431 original Audubon watercolors of American birds -- out of 433 painted between 1827 and 1838 -- will be in the gallery through the weekend. Copies of the prints will be sold in the gift shop, said society representative Beki Brandborg.The pictures, with the original captions, include a broad-winged hawk that posed stock-still nearly four hours for Audubon and a blue goose that he bought at an auction for 75 cents and that later became a family pet.

Audubon eventually painted and drew life-size portraits of almost 60 percent of American bird species, all of them in native habitats, in his work The Birds of America. His observations helped identify one new genus, 23 new species and 12 subspecies.

The Florida Audubon Society was founded in Maitland in 1900 and is the oldest Audubon society in the United States. For details, call 647-2615.